on friday, president obama said he still hoped to work out a short-term fix with house speaker john boehner to keep taxes for 98% of americans from going up on the first of january. but both sides, though, they're not talking and congress is in recess until after christmas. some democrats are still hopeful that a deal can be reached, but the republicans, they're not holding out hope. >> i would hope that we would have one last attempt here to do what everyone knows needs to be done, which is the larger plan that really does stabilize the debt and get us moving in the right direction. >> if we go down to the end of this year and the only choice we have is to save taxes going up on the middle class, then i would support that. but i wish we would have a comprehensive bill that dealt with spending, dealt with entitlements and dealt with taxes altogether. >> i believe the president is eager to go over the fiscal cliff as he senses a victory at the bottom of the cliff. >> republicans are now looking past for new year's day to the battlegrounds. >> i would raise the debt ceiling only if we save me